Constellation Research, founded by fellow Enterprise Irregular and star analyst Ray Wang has just announced the ambitious Supernova Awards program, focusing on – what a twist! – customer champions of innovation, rather than vendors.

Krish and I both feel honored to have been invited as Judges for the Cloud Computing category. Below is the official announcement in full:

THE GENESIS

Today, we announce an award that celebrates and recognizes leaders who have overcome the odds to successfully apply emerging and disruptive technologies for their organizations.

In Search of Protostars

Most award programs recognize the technology suppliers for their advancements in the market. Few, if any programs, have recognized individuals for their courage in battling the odds to effect change in their organization. The Constellation SuperNova Awards celebrate the explorers, the pioneers, and the unsung heroes who successfully put new technologies to work. More importantly, these leaders have created disruptions in their market.

“Applying technology innovation to effect business results requires exceptional organizational leadership and teamwork. It is not enough to simply implement the technology. To ensure success, these leaders had to build buy-in relationships across all levels of the organization – appealing to rational and emotional senses – as well as make tough calls in system delivery to make change easier”, noted Amy Wilson, Vice-President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research, Inc.

An all star cast of judges will identify applicants who embody the human spirit to innovate, overcome adversity, and successfully deliver market changing approaches. Applicants will be subjected to a vigorous set of criteria that reflect real-world and pragmatic experience. Semifinalists will be selected in five categories: social business, mobile enterprise, cloud computing, advanced analytics, and emerging technologies.

“Innovation is the life blood of businesses. We need to celebrate those pioneers who are able to see what the others don’t, who are willing to invest their time and energy while others don’t dare to, and whose passion inspires us all to look innovation in the eyes, embrace it and become innovators.” said Paul Papadimitriou, Vice-President and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research, Inc.

Time Lines
June 6, 2011 – First day of submissions
July 31, 2011 – Last day of submissions
August 15, 2011 – Protostars (semi-finalists) announced
November 4th, 2011 – SuperNovas (finalists) announced

All Star Judging Panel
Our judging panel comes from the best of the best. We’ve mixed an esteemed group of media professionals and industry experts with our analysts. Judges have agreed to volunteer their time in the evaluation of the submissions. The 2011 judging panel includes:

Building the business case for exec sponsorship - How did you overcome internal adversity for the project? What was used to build the case for buy – in among the executives? How did you fund the project?

Applying change management critical success factors - What communication channels did you face? How did the organization gain acceptance for new approaches? What worked? What didn’t work? What were your key lessons learned?

Deploying innovative uses of emerging and disruptive technology – How did you determine which technology was feasible? Why did you choose the vendor or approach you chose for this technology? How did IT and the business cooperate to apply new technologies?

Measuring the metrics that matter – What metrics drove the business case? Why were these metrics chosen to measure the impact of the technology? How did you measure success with those technologies?

Assessing the impact of innovation? What was the impact to stakeholders (internal and external)? What was the impact to the business? What was the impact on the competitive landscape?

Coolness factor for the story - How well was the story told? Is this story usable for a panel on best practices? Was this truly game changing or disruptive? Can others learn and apply the lessons told?

THE REWARDS

All semifinalists will be invited to Constellation’s Connected Enterprise 2011, an invitation only innovation event in Scottsdale, Arizona from November 4th to 6th, 2011. Described as TED meets Davos meets Innovation summit, the three-day executive retreat will include mind expanding keynotes from visionaries and futurists, interactive best practices panels, The Constellation SuperNova Awards event, a golf outing, and an experiential spousal/partner program.

A select group of semi-finalists will be chosen to present on one of five best practice panels at the event. The panelists will receive one innovation retreat invitation and one spousal/partner experiential invitation. All semifinalists will become honorary SuperNova community members of Constellation Research.

All finalists will win a one -year subscription to Constellation’s Research Library and complimentary tickets to the Connected Enterprise 2012 event, an estimated value of $120,000 per winner. Additional rewards will be announced as sponsors are added to the Constellation’s Connected Enterprise 2011 event. For sponsorship details contact: sales (at) ConstellationRG (dot) com.